Exploring the Conceptual and Psychometric Properties of Classroom Assessment

Abstract

The goal of this present study is to develop a self-report questionnaire on classroom assessment practices of teachers that is psychometrically sound. The term “practices” is defined in this study as activities that teachers do in relation to conducting classroom assessment – from test planning to reporting to utilization of test results. In order to conceptualize teachers’ classroom assessment practices, an 89-item questionnaire was designed and administered to a group of primary school teachers from the Philippines, Nepal, and the Kyrgyz Republic. Using IBM SPSS Version 19, item descriptive statistics and psychometric properties of the questionnaire were determined. The factor structure was assessed using exploratory factor analysis with principal component analysis as the extraction method and variance-maximization with the Kaiser Normalization as the rotation method. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was calculated to examine internal consistency reliability for the total scale and for each identified factor. The factor analysis supported a five-factor structure accounting for 70.71% of the variance of the questionnaire. Fifty-six items were retained and included in the final form of the test. The questionnaire showed satisfactory internal consistency yielding Cronbach ? = .98 for the total test. Item-total correlation in the factors ranges from r = .41 to r = .89. The paper ends with a discussion of the five factors and some suggestions for further development and validation of the questionnaire including implications for effective classroom assessment practices. Keywords: